We Adopted a Ship!

The US Maritime Administration, a part of the Department of Transportation has a really cool educational program for teachers and their classes.

They match the class with a working merchant ship and then put the teacher/class in contact with the officers on board.

I applied in September and in December we were matched with the T.S. Kennedy - the training ship of the Mass Maritime Academy in Buzzard’s Bay. The Kennedy is a former cargo ship that has been converted into a school at sea.

There are over 600 students on board and they have daily classroom instruction and have duties on board. We looked at the layout of the ship - the teaching spaces, recreational spaces, and sleeping accommodations.

We watched a video tour of the ship - I don’t think the students cared for the very limited personal space provided on a ship - basically a bunk bed with 18” of space below the next upper bunk and a curtain. About 90 cadets sleep in an area about the size of my classroom.

The T.S. Kennedy maintains a great blog that they update daily. They make it really easy to follow along on their voyage and they suggest some interesting topics to learn about as they go.

We’ve learned about navigation, the environmental impact of ships, geography and a host of other topics. 

The T.S. Kennedy left for their annual training cruise in January and we’ve checked in with them every few days to see where they are and what they’ve been doing. Their most recent port stop was Barbados so, yes, I’m a little jealous.

Next, they’ll begin working their way north again. Their next port call is Miami and then back to Massachusetts.